WORTHINGTON -- The first few words purporting to describe Worthington High School senior Austin Svalland in his Globe All-Area football bio reads, “An outstanding leader who played with passion.”
If Svalland’s high school sports career could actually be summed up in just a few words, that might be a good place to start. During the football season, Worthington’s ready and willing All-Big South Conference linebacker was a playmaker, finishing the season with 69 tackles, including 12.5 for losses.
Looking back -- and also looking forward -- the blonde-haired Trojan recalled something he learned from his head coach, Geno Lais. “The best advice I’ve gotten is from Coach Lais. He always said, ‘Don’t accept OK.’ … He said, ‘No matter if you fail or succeed, just never accept OK.’”
Svalland, a wide-ranging center-fielder for the Worthington High School baseball team, has taken that mantra with him into the spring. Tonight (Wednesday), the sixth-seeded Trojans are set to play an elimination bracket Section 2AAA game with seventh-seeded Faribault at Johnson Park in New Ulm. The locals can’t afford to lose. A win, however, would keep their season alive.
Even with a victory, it will be difficult for the Trojans to successfully wade through the 2AAA field for a championship waiting for them in the end. But OK isn’t good enough, you know.
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Svalland, who plans to play some American Legion baseball this summer, and also some amateur ball, took a few moments from his senior prep baseball season recently to cooperate for a session of The Drill. You can see the video online at www.dglobe.com . Here’s a sample of the interview:
QUESTION: Head WHS baseball coach Brian Iverson says you’re a very hard worker and you don’t like to fail. Would you say you’ve got a fire in you?
ANSWER: “I do have a fire in me. I’ve always had it, I think. I kind of want to be on top of everything. I don’t like striking out, I don’t like failing. If I’m trying as hard as I can and I do fail, I see that as a way of going out there next time and doing better.”
QUESTION: How do you stay sharp?
ANSWER: “When Coach Sauerbrei (longtime WHS baseball coach Stacy Sauerbrei, who stepped aside for 2019 to deal with health issues) was here, he kind of told me, ‘If you’re in a little slump, you gotta put one down the third base line. You’re fast, you can bunt, that’s the way of getting self-confidence. It’s all in the head,’ he told me. And it is all in the head.”
QUESTION: In baseball, what are you the best at?
ANSWER: “In the field, I’m fast. So that’s a big advantage in center-field. I think the best thing I’m at is not quite hitting, but when I get on base I’m really good at running the bases. I know I can usually steal second every single time. Pretty often, I’m on third.”
